Fresh Abundance! Freshness

Very Foodie, Partly Organic, Mostly Bicycles and Beer

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Open for Business

July 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Finally! After what seems like months of headaches, expenditures and mixups, Fresh Abundance! Division is open.

It’s really not difficult to find.  2015 N. Division.  Just North of Indiana and across the street from Mountain Gear.

Man, has this place changed.  It looks so much different and better it’s simply amazing.

BrightSpirit has some pretty big plans for this place, if you’re part of the “inner circle” stop by, ask for me (it’s pronounced Jack) and I’ll give you a behind the scenes tour.

I’ve gotta cut this post short, pesky customers keep coming in.

Till Later,

Jacque - Out

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Weekend Update

July 7th, 2008 · No Comments

Ahh, how nice it was to escape the madness of the Division Store opening and get away from the big city and out to the wilderness where the mosquitoes will carry you away and there’s always the fear of rogue beaver.

We drove just about 6 hours to North of Whitefish Montana and stayed at the family cabin of Laura and Tim’s.


Not too rural, but rural enough

It was outstandingly beautiful.  We went canoeing…


My wonderful wife tolerated my obsession with water and went out with me

Later in the trip Tim, Laura and Steve came upstream in their canoe and violated one of the supreme laws of river canoeing, they went sideways and it was all over.


The price for violating a river canoeing law

Luckily the “river” is actually a creek, so everyone was a-ok.


Thumbs up if you’re ok

Over all a great weekend.  Then we drove home and went to work at Division.

Next post will be all about Division.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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Temptation

July 4th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve mentioned before how much and what I like to eat.  Basically a lot and mostly fruit and veggies.  I tend to graze throughout the day.  Hey, there’s gotta be some sort of bennie of being a grocery store owner.

But, I’m good for the mostly fruit and veggie thing unless some comes along and offers something else.  You see, I can resist almost anything but temptation.


Jacque wouldn’t do so well here (or he would, depends on how you look at it)

If I’m off the bike because I rode way too far over the past couple of days and need to give my bod a break and someone offers a bike ride I’m strapping on the shoes am off.

So here I am working away at the Divsion store grazing on some lettuce, peppers and whatever I can put my little hands on the other day when Steve approachs me and says, “It’s Whopper Wednesday, want to go to BK?”.   I was there baby, one toxic burger and fries for me.  A couple of hours later it didn’t sit too well, but hey, I guess I paid for taking a trip to, “Temptation Island”.

I’m off to Whitefish Montana for the 4th weekend returning Sunday morning.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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And Then There Was One

July 2nd, 2008 · No Comments

One Division update left that is.  I’m writing this on Thursday evening after working 2 12-hour days and missing yesterdays update.

Between “normal” day to day operations (in which we’re short staffed) we’ve been touching up paint trim, patching holes in walls and working with plumbing inspectors.  In addition, today I had to do the Wednesday deliveries while Heather did Thursdays because Thursday is actually FAFriday.  !?  What I’m getting at is that FA is closed on Friday so Thursday deliveries went out today along with regular Wednesday ones and Friday deliveries will go out tomorrow (Thursday).

The big question…are we still going to open on Monday.  Heck yea!  Like I said before, we’ll just work around ya’ll.

Honk at me if you see me outside on Thursday as I pressure wash the outside of the building. After that’s done I’m going to clean the inside of the windows then BS and I are off to Whitefish Montana for the 4th weekend returning Sunday morn to freak out a bit over the opening.

So this’ll be the last post till Sunday evening.  At that time I’ll put up some before and after pics and will await your arrive on Monday.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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Divsion Update

July 1st, 2008 · No Comments

Here’s the hot, sweaty and dirty update for today.

Not as much painting, more plumbing and lot’s o cleaning.

So, it’s currently 5:50 pm and I’m literally trapped here at the Division Store.  I’m too sweaty to sit in the Adminstrator’s air conditioned office to surf youtube videos, it’s too dang hot in the break-room so I’m sitting at the cash register computer eating a mostly melted chocolate bar.  I have my bike here to ride home, but forgot my shoes.  And I can’t ride the bike without the special shoes.  I kinda feel like Sampson when he had his hair cut off.

Anyhoo, today the Troops hosed off the floor, Steve and Peecheng did some painting and Steve and I did some plumbing.  We have part 1 of the 2 part plumbing inspection tomorrow.


Pictured here will be a floor sink for the espresso stand

On Tuesday I’ll be setting the floor sinks and self setup begins. More pics then.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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Division Update

June 29th, 2008 · No Comments

As promised here’s the daily update.

Paint and plumbing.

Man, there is a lot of wall space in that building.  I never realized how much till we started painting.


I almost forgot to paint these pillars

Anna’s Husband Luke is working HARD on getting the plumbing installed. We had a 2″ line brought in.  It will feed the kitchen and all the rest of our needs.


Size does matter. A 2″ line will bring in a lot of water

More tomorrow.

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Time Warp X2

June 28th, 2008 · No Comments

And now, it’s time for a time warp.

First we’ll talk about the Division store.  Most of the new lighting has been installed and there’s only a bit of painting left to do.


New lights and Old Lights

Have I mentioned we open on July 7th?  Of course we just may be doing a bit of work around you, but at least we’ll be open.

Here’s another comparision of old and new from the family reunion.

Then and Now

Phew! This hopping around the time spectrum is tiring stuff.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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Fresh Abundance! Weekly News

June 28th, 2008 · No Comments

This NEW and IMPROVED version of the Weekly News brought to you by:

Fresh Abundance!
Bringing Local Food to Local People
http://www.freshabundance.com

HeyHeyHey!  It’s, here! It’s here! ~Commence blasting of horns~ ~Ready fireworks~ ~Practice saying, “Ya’ll watch this!~

Can you guess what I’m going to announce? (No, it isn’t my upcoming debut as a dancer) It’s the opening of the Division store.

Write it on your calendar and tattoo it on your forehead, Beginning Monday July 7th at 10am you can come to the Division store to shop and/or pick up your order.  Located at 2015 North Division (one block North of Indiana across from Mountain Gear) we will be open 7-days per week from 10am till 7pm.  This will be a “soft opening”, so other than a bit of horn blatting and getting the fireworks ready there wont’ be much fanfare. We’ve still a bit of work to do but really want to get this place open.  But *please* wait till Monday the 7th to come by.  The shelving isn’t up yet and there’s still a bit of painting, plumbing and concrete work to do.  For more information check my blog at http://www.freshabundance.com/freshblog  From now on, I’ll be making *daily* updates so you can see what’s going on.

Wow! After an announcement like that what can I follow up with that’ll keep ya’ll interested?

How about this:

Fresh, LOCAL chickens on sale at $2.99 per pound and Fresh Organic Corn on the Cob at 75 cents each.  (Oh, the corn won’t be available till Tuesday.)

Just out of curiosity, do you have any idea why this is such good Weekly News this week?  It’s because I’m composing it from The Scoop!  The infusion of ice cream on top of a rich triple mocha and the company of my friends and neighbors is really inspiring.

That’s it for this week.

Till next,

Jacque - Out

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Hey There!

June 26th, 2008 · No Comments

Yes, I’m still here.  Just busier than a one-eyed cat watchin two mouse holes.

So, I’ll recap from last weeks News.

I actually wrote The News on Friday and then did some outstanding riding.  On Saturday we hit the road for a farm run to pick up raw milk and do some camping in the mountains North of Winthrop.

We ended up on a forest service road where we did a 2 mile hike with 960 foot elevation gain to some great waterfalls.


Not quite wide enough to hold hands with your sweetie

Here are some great pics of the falls we finally made it to.  It was worth the climb.


BrightSpirit is even more beautiful when she faces the camera


Steve at the falls


Peecheng

Nice hike with beautiful vistas. On Sunday morning we cooked over the trusty camp stove, picked up the milk and headed home.

Ahh, but what since?  Paint, and work on the Division Store.  In fact, you can say you heard it here first.

It’s official.  The opening date of the Division store will be July 7th.  You’ll be able to to some shopping as well as pick up your  boxes.  Exciting?  You’re dang tootin!  We’ve lost our sanity and gone broke on this project, so it’d better be exciting.

Here’s a picture of the South wall painting progression. (click for full sized version)


Ugly to beautiful

Today I’ll be installing lighting.  More pics to follow.

Till later,

Jacque - Out

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Fresh Abundance! Weekly News

June 21st, 2008 · 2 Comments

This fungal, funny and informational Weekly News brought to you by:

Fresh Abundance!
Bringing Local Food to Local People
This Weeks Boxes

Last week I mentioned Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched and a person replied asking her husbands name. My response?  Lenny. (I may have been wrong)

I’m going to mix it up this week and give you the Division Update first.
Painting is almost done. Wish I could say more, like announce a firm opening or maybe even a tentative opening.  But we can’t, there’s still too much up in the air.  There’s some pictures of the painting (what great colors) and more on the blog.

For four years now I’ve been blathering on and on about food.  Preparation, safety, what’s hot and what’s not. Mostly I’ve been pumping what Fresh Abundance! has available or LOCAL items. Here’s an opportunity to hear a person talk in person about a foodstuff that’s oft misunderstood and frequently scares people, mushrooms.

The Spokane Mushroom Club is presenting Tales of Tibet’s Fungal Miracle from Daniel Winkler. The talk will begin at 7 pm on Monday the 30th at the San Souci West Recreation Center 3231 W. Boone Ave. (go west on Boone and It’ll drop you right into the San Souci).  The presentation is free.  Contact Peecheng (Peach-ing) at Chenjp1 at yahoo.com for more information.  Heck if for no other reason, come on by and see me.  I don’t even like mushrooms but the information on the Club’s website makes the talk sound interesting. I promise not to talk about *my* fungal issues.
Special of the week: Pork steaks at $6.27 per pound (down from $8.27).
That’s it for this week.  It’s a beautiful Saturday morning.  I’m off to The Scoop for some coffee, a bike ride, visit with Rick, home to clean and then tomorrow a farm run and camping with BrightSpirit.  Can it get much better?

Till later,

Jacque - Out

Phew, just caught this before it left.  Hey! Don’t forget that the delivery and store schedule will be different for the 4th of July week.  Check out the schedule at Here.  Jacque - Out (again, as he closes the rig’s back door and gives it a slap to send it on the way to deliver this weeks News)

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